In their only meet on their home course all year, the boys' cross country team finished third out of six teams that competed in the soggy Mercersburg Invitational October 1.

Georgetown Day (DC) edged out Gilman School (Baltimore) 37-39 to take first place while Mercersburg took third with a score of 47 points. The official scoring somehow missed Jake Cruikshank '24 crossing the line in 18th place so the Blue Storm are listed with 51 team points, but in either case the team finished third.

Head coach David Grady described the flow of the race by saying, "Brendan Shorb '24 was out strong in the early stages of the race, with Winston Watkins '25, Bryson Brown '24, and Cole Smith '23 following closely behind. Brown slipped on the mud heading into the Culbertson Woods before the first mile mark, but quickly got to his feet and rejoined the pack. Shorb faded slightly in the 3^rd mile, while the rest of the pack maintained pace. Watkins slipped under 18:00 minutes for the first time on our home course. Jake Cruikshank had his best race of the season (and ironically was missed in the results!)." Coach Grady went on to add, "It was nice for our boys to run on our home course in a race against quality competition. Our pack of four got out well and engaged the Georgetown Day and Gilman runners. Jake Cruikshank ran a strong race, battling with other runners right to the finish. We have been aiming to get our 5^th man closer to our pack of four and today was good progress. Our top 5 were within 1minute of each other, which is the smallest spread this season."

Mercersburg's individual scorers were:

5^th – Winston Watkins ’25 – 17:57
6^th – Bryson Brown ’24 – 18:04
7^th – Cole Smith ’23 – 18:11
12^th – Brendan Shorb ’24 – 18:32
18^th – Jake Cruikshank ‘24 – 18:56

Click here for complete meet results.

The Blue Storm will run in the Gettysburg (PA) Invite on Saturday, October 8 beginning at 8 a.m.